USA strikes Syria again

Klompen · Oct 26, 2018

gaiusmarius said:
some harsh truth about the way the Kurdish YPG displaced Arab and Turkmen civilians and stole their land destroyed their whole villages and kicked them out.

the Kurds will have to answer for the atrocities they committed just like the so called jihadists will answer for their actions in the end.

YPG Terror Group Implementing Ethnic Cleansing in Syria

[youtubeif]F9FxXRV4d0c[/youtubeif]

everyone think ahh the poor Kurds, but when law and order breaks down the worst of the worst seem to float to the top and make the decisions. yes they deserve their own autonomy, but they don't deserve other peoples land. this is the same strategy the Israelis have been using for 70 years. they displace the local populations and bring in settlers. Kurds are sadly behaving the same way.

While I am not in a position to dispute this account specifically, I will say that this YouTube channel is quite obviously biased against the Kurds. They're based in Turkey and Turkey does not allow any media that disagrees with the government narrative(especially regarding the Kurds). I would take this source with more than a grain of salt.

gaiusmarius · Oct 26, 2018

Klompen said:
While I am not in a position to dispute this account specifically, I will say that this YouTube channel is quite obviously biased against the Kurds. They're based in Turkey and Turkey does not allow any media that disagrees with the government narrative(especially regarding the Kurds). I would take this source with more than a grain of salt.

yes good point, this is obviously the view from the non Kurd side, Turkish propaganda even, but the thing is, i read and heard about this already a few years back. i don't think anyone is disputing that they occupied Arab villages and demolished houses of any families who had any isis members. but when they were thinking about future elections, they realized that they need to be the majority if they want to stay in charge, so they started this displacement program and demolished whole villages off the face of the earth. the problem is we have satellites and google maps nowadays, so the Kurds will have to go back to their own villages and leave the Turkmen and Arab tribes to take back their land. this is one of the real causes that Erdogan has against the Kurds. they don't just want self rule, they want it all, including 25% of Syrian oil and gas wells. all the while they represent no more then 6% of the Syrian population.

i don't like what the Turks are doing in Syria either, but they do have some valid points about the Kurds, their military power depends on the members of the Syrian PKK, like the jihadists they have given them selves other names, but the fact is the pkk are terrorists internationally recognized as such and it's also agreed that the so called PYD is really the Syrian branch of the PKK. they follow the same marxist ideology and they have the same membership. if you ask me the Kurds are in the process of being weaponized by the greater Israel crowd. it's why Israel is supporting the Kurds, divide and conquer. sadly the Kurds seem to be going along with treasonous plots against the nation that gave them refuge. instead of being Syrian Kurdish heroes who fought off isis, they will now be remembered for trying to be Syria's Achilles Heel. if the Syrian population hardens their hearts to the Kurds, they shouldn't be surprised is all i'm saying. how would you like some group of 2nd or 3rd generation refugees from China or Vietnam to occupy and declare (with Chinese help) their own country in the US? don't tell me the citizens would accept this and they won't in Syria. US will have to stay there for ever protecting the Kurds. or the stupid Kurds could see reason and reconcile with the Syrian government and get many concessions in the process.

Klompen · Oct 26, 2018

The Kurds are in a very complicated position and are not one unified group. The Kurds or Rojava and Northern Iraq are basically different cultures and certainly not one group by any means despite having strong ties. Even their language is different. Some Kurds are fighting on Turkey's side. These are mostly Sunni Muslim Kurds. There's been a back-and-forth between the ethnic groups in that border region for about 500 years now so this is just part of a long chain of things that was going on before the USA ever got interested in putting a pipeline through Syria.

Kurds probably have one of the best claims historically to the area though since they've had people there for centuries. The Alawites and Bedouin have been there a long time too. Arabs are generally speaking the newest group to that area other than Armenians, and the Armenians came to Syria and Lebanon because Arabs, Turkmen, and some Sunni Kurds committed a genocide on them and drove them out of Turkey.

Honestly I think the Kurds don't care about the oil as much as the USA does, but they realize the US forces would abandon them in a heartbeat if it weren't for that oil. They've basically said as much to the Syrian government in their negotiations for aid in Afrin. They are playing this tricky game of not fighting Assad, but also aiding one of his worst enemies because they know they're basically devoid of allies in the region.

Storm Shadow · Oct 26, 2018

Kurds =Pawns

gaiusmarius · Oct 26, 2018

i know one thing, the Kurds are playing their own game and if they are not careful they will lose everything. siding with foreigners against your own homeland is just not smart, thats why there are Kurds fighting with Erdogan, same with Syrian turkmen tribes and local Arabs who are resentful of Kurdish domination over traditionally non Kurdish lands. there are already regular attacks taking place from people they displaced or family of the displaced. if Kurdish leaders had some vision and were not being paid their wages by the US government, as well as what ever opportunities for corruption they find in the US support, they would long have reconciled with the Syrian government. thats the thing, the US is using the Kurds to deprive the other 94% of the Syrian population of their oil wealth and the rebuilding it is supposed to be used to achieve. the US has out right said, we don't want Syria to be able to rebuild until we say it's time basically. so that means, until their stooge government is in place in Damascus, the US will be stealing the Syrians oil and gas. the fact the Kurds are making this possible for the US by giving them some kind of legitimacy, will make the rest of Syrians more and more resentful, specially if Damascus starts openly blaming lack of funds to restore services, on the Kurds. it won't end well for the Kurds if they go on like this, either they will be for ever occupied and subordinate to the US military, always guarding their borders and always on a war footing, or the US drops them for some deal with Edogan and Putin and they lose it all, or they reconcile with the government for major concessions on self rule and maybe being allowed to decide what to do with their 6% of the oil and gas money, as long as they ask the US to leave, even if US doesn't leave, at least Syrians won't any longer have cause to call them traitors to the republic of Syria.

but yes, it is indeed complicated as hell. they are working on a new constitution for Syria, will be interesting to see what they come up with and if the Syrian Kurds can live with it.

Storm Shadow · Oct 26, 2018

When I saw Kurds waving Israeli flags last year when they thought they were going to get their own state... said all I needed to know about them.. especially in Persian folklore is on point.

Klompen · Oct 27, 2018

I think its a mistake to see the Kurds as friends of Israel because they are like them. The problem is that Kurdish communists are atheists, and that leaves them basically with enemies all around them in a region that hates atheists. Israel ultimately has nothing against atheists outside of their borders and shares many of the same enemies that the Kurdish communists do. Its a marriage of convenience at best.

In some ways if you consider their already horrible position long before the war started, allying with the USA was their only good play. Turkey is at least in theory a US ally, and aligning US interests with theirs put them in a situation where Turkey might have to threaten US soldiers to attack them. We have, in fact, actually seen this happen during the Afrin invasion. We also saw Pro-Assad militia along with Russian mercenaries try to take an oil field from the Kurds on the behalf of a Russian oligarch get obliterated by US air strikes. By carefully avoiding much fighting with Americans and allowing most of the blame to go to them, the Kurds are probably playing the best hand available even if it has extreme perils involved. Its also important to understand that Syrian Kurds did not set out to form an independent state. ISIS cut them off from the main body of Syria and they became besieged in places like Kobane. Forming Rojava was truly an act of survival on their part, and they've never been particularly against rejoining Syria if the war ever ends. US leaders have taken advantage of this situation. They even orchestrated it to some degree with the military backing the Kurds and the CIA covertly supplying ISIS via Saudi Arabia. Anyway, hopefully their direct democracy experiments there will have positive effects on post-war Syria. Both Putin and Assad have been reaching out to them to offer them a degree of protection if the US leaves. We'll see how that plays out.

gaiusmarius · Oct 27, 2018

Merkel, Macron, Erdogan and Putin had a conference in Istanbul about the Syrian situation. while they remain conflicted on some issues regarding Assad, they all seem to have agreed, that Syrias future including Syrias government will be up to the Syrian people to decide. this has been Putins point from the get go, only Syrians have the right to decide on the future of Assad or his government. the only legitimate way to let them decide it, is by vote. no party can be let to gain power by weapons.

i did notice that Putin and Erdogan had a slightly different understanding of the memorandum of understanding regarding Idlib, lol. Putin reserved the right to support the Syrian government in responding to provocations, while Erdogan was saying how the Russians must protect Idlib from the Syrian government, lol.

Erdogan, Putin, Macron, Merkel give statement following Syria summit

[YOUTUBEIF]cezjdhuEd18[/YOUTUBEIF]

gaiusmarius · Oct 27, 2018

Klompen said:
I think its a mistake to see the Kurds as friends of Israel because they are like them. The problem is that Kurdish communists are atheists, and that leaves them basically with enemies all around them in a region that hates atheists. Israel ultimately has nothing against atheists outside of their borders and shares many of the same enemies that the Kurdish communists do. Its a marriage of convenience at best.

In some ways if you consider their already horrible position long before the war started, allying with the USA was their only good play. Turkey is at least in theory a US ally, and aligning US interests with theirs put them in a situation where Turkey might have to threaten US soldiers to attack them. We have, in fact, actually seen this happen during the Afrin invasion. We also saw Pro-Assad militia along with Russian mercenaries try to take an oil field from the Kurds on the behalf of a Russian oligarch get obliterated by US air strikes. By carefully avoiding much fighting with Americans and allowing most of the blame to go to them, the Kurds are probably playing the best hand available even if it has extreme perils involved. Its also important to understand that Syrian Kurds did not set out to form an independent state. ISIS cut them off from the main body of Syria and they became besieged in places like Kobane. Forming Rojava was truly an act of survival on their part, and they've never been particularly against rejoining Syria if the war ever ends. US leaders have taken advantage of this situation. They even orchestrated it to some degree with the military backing the Kurds and the CIA covertly supplying ISIS via Saudi Arabia. Anyway, hopefully their direct democracy experiments there will have positive effects on post-war Syria. Both Putin and Assad have been reaching out to them to offer them a degree of protection if the US leaves. We'll see how that plays out.

this is a good analysis of the Kurdish situation. they are friendly with Israel because Israel is friendly to them, but this doesn't make it a wise move to be seen to be on the side of Israel in the country that is still technically at war with Israel. but i do understand that they are dealing the hand they are given as well as their leadership knows how.

edited to add a few hours later:

the thing is, an experiment in direct democracy thats based on displacing the potential opposition votes from the territory, isn't really a democracy.

gaiusmarius · Oct 28, 2018

Russians are now officially claiming the drone swarm attack on their air base in Syria was being controlled by a US awac surveillance plane. they already noted back then how this plane seemed to be very interested in the progress of the swarm drone attack, but now they are saying the plane helped to find EW gaps for the drones to get closer to the base.

Russia has proof US was behind drone attack on Syria base

[YOUTUBEIF]wK3uBjguOLw[/YOUTUBEIF]

a bit more detail:

American Drones ATTACKED Russian Base in Syria! Pentagon Treachery Knows No Bounds

[YOUTUBEIF]wANihnzTvNQ[/YOUTUBEIF]

Klompen · Oct 28, 2018

gaiusmarius said:
this is a good analysis of the Kurdish situation. they are friendly with Israel because Israel is friendly to them, but this doesn't make it a wise move to be seen to be on the side of Israel in the country that is still technically at war with Israel. but i do understand that they are dealing the hand they are given as well as their leadership knows how.

edited to add a few hours later:

the thing is, an experiment in direct democracy thats based on displacing the potential opposition votes from the territory, isn't really a democracy.

Yes, showing alignment with Israel in general is a very double-edged sword. Its an odd situation where they are basically allies with two rival nations, but not necessarily close allies to either.

The displacement the Kurds engage in is less an ethnic cleansing and more of a political one. Pro-Turk and ISIS-affiliated populations took advantage of the ISIS surge through the region and so its not entirely unprovoked. Its true though that the Kurds have gone too far in some cases. I would call their experiments with democracy just as valid as anyone else's though overall. I can't think of any modern democracy that hasn't crushed some group or another; The USA crushed Native Americans, the UK crushed the Irish, Scots, Indians, Burmese, and Welsh(listed in order of extremity and not even close to a complete list); Germany crushed the Jews, France crushed the Algerians(and so many others); Dutch crushed South Africans, and the list goes on and on. It doesn't excuse targeting non-combatants, but its certainly not grounds for totally throwing out the lessons learned by their experiment. Rojava has a multi-cultural leadership by law(Arab Muslims, Kurdish atheists, and others are required to be represented).

There's some problems with their system too. They have a very military structure to their leadership(as often happens to wartime populations) and loyalty to leaders is a bigger deal than I think it should be. Given that their form of communism is based on Maoism, its not surprising that they have a sort of monarchical hierarchy to some degree. Those aspects of Kurdish governance(especially in Rojava) are not so great in my opinion. In fact, I would say that element of their social order is quite likely a significant factor behind these efforts to displace some populations. I strongly believe they could benefit from Assad's governing style a bit, but Assad could also learn a lot from them about grass-roots democracy.

Gypsy Nirvana · Oct 28, 2018

Such a history buff Klompen - I like your style man, and enjoy reading your posts very much.

gaiusmarius · Oct 28, 2018

quite an interesting analyses of the S-300

for once the vid isn't full of unfounded claims and footage of launching missiles, lol. instead he's talking specs.

[YOUTUBEIF]z8YlOTSQaLs[/YOUTUBEIF]

as i posted before though, the US and Israel have only trained on the older versions of this system, the newer versions might surprise any pilots who trained on the old ones in Greece. even the long range missiles for this system are a lot longer then the old version, so an enemy plane really only has the option to use stand off weapons. in the end the real test has yet to happen, both for and against this system, but we do seem to see Israel taking a break from their almost daily incursions and attacks on Syria.

Klompen · Oct 28, 2018

Covert Cabal is a really good source

gaiusmarius · Oct 31, 2018

click the link if you want to see the maps in the original article.

ISIS Defeats U.S. Proxy Force - Again

https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50529.htm

By Moon Of Alabama

October 30, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - The U.S. backed proxy force in east Syria again lost positions to the Islamic State.

The map shows the positions of ISIS (grey), the US. proxy force SDF (yellow) and the Syrian army (read) at the border with Iraq on October 19.

The U.S. proxy force lost the towns Susah, Hawi al-Susah, Safafinah, Mozan, Shajlah and Baghuz Fawqani and ISIS is back at the Iraqi border. The Iraqi forces were alarmed and sealed the border on their side.

The immediate cause of the loss was another sandstorm which ISIS used to counterattack. A similar counterattack during a sandstorm happened two weeks ago. That makes this U.S. spokesman's statement laughable:

“The sandstorm allowed an ISIS counterattack, which was surprising given the conditions, but now the air is clear and the Coalition will continue to increase air and fire support to assist our partners,” Col. Ryan said ...
Sandstorms disable air and artillery support. That is why ISIS, which lacks an airforce, has for years used each and every sandstorms to attack. That is not surprising at all, but one of its signature form of fighting. Sandstorms mean that one can expect an ISIS attack. That one has to double ones guard and be ready to defend ones position. The U.S. special forces who are supposed to lead their proxies seem to have neglected that.

ISIS jihadis attacked during the sandstorm in their usual manner. A suicide bomber blew up the first position at the frontline and more than 100 fighters stormed through and rolled up their enemies lines. Since Friday some 60 to 80 SDF were killed, more were wounded and at least 20 were taken prisoners. Others simply fled in panic and ISIS could recaptures several villages without a fight. ISIS claims that all the captured fighters were Arabs, not Kurds.

The Kurds decided long ago that the fight at the Euphrates is not their main problem. They prepare to fight against a Turkish invasion. The SDF ground force attacking ISIS is mostly Arab. Some were hired by the U.S., but many of them were pressed into service. They are not that interested in risking their life. They will only attack after the U.S. air force bombed their enemies to smithereens.

After the high losses of the Arab SDF the Kurdish YPG was told to sends some 300 of its fighters to regain the lost positions and to continue the general attack on ISIS which for month yielded no gains.

ISIS still holds some 700 prisoners and hostages. It had threatened to kill them if it does not receive food and medical supplies. There has been no news of their fate.

On Friday the presidents of Russia, France and Turkey and the German chancellor Merkel met in Istanbul. The French and German sides have given up on regime change. They have a refugee problem and want the war to wind down. They still insist that Syria should change its constitution but Damascus has no reason to follow such calls. The former Indian ambassador to Turkey, MK Bhadrakumar, has a deeper analysis of the summit. The big question to him is how the Turkish-American relations evolve.

There is little reason to think that these will get better. Erdogan wants the U.S. out of Syria nearly as much as Damascus itself. Erdogan threatened recently to invade the northeastern part of Syria that the U.S. controls. Yesterday Turkish artillery hit positions of the U.S. proxy force in Syria near the border with Turkey.

The U.S. keeps insisting that 'Iran-backed militias' leave Syria before the U.S. leaves. But the 'Iran-backed militias' in Syria are nowadays Syrians. Iran supported groups with Afghan and Iraqi fighters and Iranian soldiers have left the country some time ago. There are at most some Iranian officers left who train local groups which Iran has put on its payroll. The demand makes no sense. It likely originates from Israel which wants the U.S. to stay in Syria as long as possible.

The situation in Idelb governorate and elsewhere has not changed. The upcoming U.S.-Russia summit on November 11 will discuss the Syria issue. Until then everything is on hold.

This article was originally published by "Moon Of Alabama" -

St. Phatty · Oct 31, 2018

gaiusmarius said:
ISIS Defeats U.S. Proxy Force - Again

I thought ISIS was a US-Saudi Arabia-Israel Proxy Force.

gaiusmarius · Oct 31, 2018

St. Phatty said:
I thought ISIS was a US-Saudi Arabia-Israel Proxy Force.

its complicated, you have pentagon programs which support the so called sdf, on the other hand you have secret CIA programs which were supporting al Nusra, and even isis in the beginning. not sure if they still support them, but they do seem to helicopter their leaders out of besieged places. there was a time in this war when even the US media reported how US allies were fighting other US allies. the CIA have their own mission in Syria, they have free rein to decide how US policy there will be best achieved.

Klompen · Oct 31, 2018

Can't keep selling more bombs and missiles if the fighting stops. Simple solution to this is to support opposing sides.

Storm Shadow · Oct 31, 2018

Arabs are pretty stupid and will kill each other like Red and Black Ants...

That's why they need a Leader with a heavy hand like Saddam ...he kept them in Check because if you dont...well...you see the situation we have now

Saudi style is primitive cave man status

St. Phatty · Oct 31, 2018

Storm Shadow said:
Arabs are pretty stupid and will kill each other like Red and Black Ants...

Compared to American "health" care - that is looking positively advanced.

USA strikes Syria again

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